Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps he is taking with Network Rail to improve air quality in train stations.
The Government is determined to reduce the impact of poor air quality on railway users, workers, and neighbours and will soon be announcing a Transport Decarbonisation Plan which looks at the environmental impact of transport. We are acting to both eliminate pollution, largely caused by diesel engines, and to reduce its negative effects.
The Government has reduced use of diesel trains on the network by delivering hundreds of miles of electrification since 2010. Of the passenger vehicle miles travelled by electric or diesel vehicles in 2018/19, about 70% were electric – up from about 63% in 2009/10.
We are supporting development of new technology to reduce pollution from diesel trains, funding air quality projects through the ongoing First of a Kind innovation programme. Network Rail have taken mitigating action in stations where air quality is particularly poor and plan to extend this to other stations.